“The Mandalorian is a mysterious, lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy. Some might say he has questionable moral character, which is in line with some of our best westerns, some good samurai. All the good stuff. He’s a badass,” Pascal said at Star Wars Celebration in April.
Mandalorians are from the warrior society of Mandalore. Little is revealed about the planet or its inhabitants in the Star Wars movies, though its local politics were a major plot point in Star Wars animated series The Clone Wars. Since the creator of The Clone Wars, Dave Filoni, is also an executive producer on The Mandalorian, the series will likely delve more into the Mandalores than any previous live-action Star Wars stories.
The only Mandalorians to appear in the Star Wars movies are Jango Fett and his young clone, Boba. Like his father, Boba Fett was a bounty hunter, hired by Darth Vader to track down and capture Han Solo. Boba seemingly died in Return of the Jedi after a tumble into the Great Pit of Carkoon, though it’s widely theorized he survived. Either way, The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau has confirmed Boba Fett will not appear in the Disney+ series.
But Pascal won’t be the only character in The Mandalorian who seems to mirror a bounty hunter from the original Star Wars trilogy. The trailer for The Mandalorian also introduced IG-11 (voiced by director Taika Waititi), an assassin droid nearly identical to IG-88, a bounty hunter originally introduced in The Empire Strikes Back alongside Boba Fett.
While the Mandalorian works alone, his bounty hunting will pit him against, or team him with, a sprawling cast of Star Wars lowlifes, including bounty hunter guild leader Greef Carga (Carl Weathers), former Stormtrooper Cara Dune (Gina Carano), local warlord Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) and a mysterious character played by director Werner Herzog.
The Mandalorian will premiere on Disney+ on November 12.
